A central figure in figurative art between the end of the 19th century and the revolutionary period of the avant-garde movements, and famous for his dreamlike atmospheres, forests and enchanted landscapes,Henri Rousseau (Laval, 1844 – Paris, 1910), has always been impossible to pigeonhole.

With the special collaboration of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and under the patronage of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici di Venezia e Laguna, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia is dedicating an extraordinary exhibition to Rousseau, known also as Le Douanier. Produced by 24 ORE Cultura – Gruppo 24 ORE, the exhibition will boast over 100 works from leading international institutions (40 masterpieces by Rousseau himself and 60 works for the purposes of comparison), and will be held in the Doge’s Apartments in the Doge’s Palace.

Exhibition organized and realized with the scientific collaboration and exceptional loans from the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris.

CARNEVALE 2015 31 JANUARY - 17 FEBRUARY 2015

The world's most delicious festival!

A CARNIVAL FULL OF GOOD TASTE

Good taste, quality and refinement, the Carnival of Venice 2015 opens in a triumph of flavours, exquisite tastes and the pleasures of good food, wine and conviviality: "The most delicious festival in the world!" under the artistic direction of Davide Rampello.

ENHANCING THE EXCELLENCE OF THE TERRITORY

The exploitation of territorial excellence continues stronger than ever; over the previous years the endeavour has seen the collaboration with important artistic realities including set designers Angelo Lodi, Guerrino Lovato and Massimo Checchetto, costumes of the Atelier Nicolao and Atelier Longhi of Francesco Briggi, and this year will open to broader event themes linked to food and good taste.

THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE CARNIVAL OF VENICE AND MILAN EXPO 2015 CONTINUES

Expo Milan 2015 since last year is a partner of the Carnival of Venice. The most delicious festival in the world! will be the festive version of the event, Venice’s homage to the universal exhibition"Feeding the planet, energy for life", which since May 2015 will focus the international attention to issues such as the Earth's nourishment, food production and the exploitation of cultural traditions.

THE OPEN INVITATION TO ENJOY THE FESTIVITY IN VENICE

"Experiencing" the Carnival in Venice will mean to savour every moment of the festival by definition.

Venice will offer a rich calendar of performances, shows and evens linked to gastronomy and its products of excellence. Literary, musical and theatrical tradition, both national and international, offers several suggestions that will inspire the artistic and scenic choices.

THE CARNIVAL'S PASSION FOR FOOD, HISTORIC AND ARTISTIC ITINERARIES OF VENICE - A MOUTH-WATERING EXPERIENCE

Food, of which the Milan Expo will be the global discussion arena in 2015, is for the Carnival of Venice the "plenteousness" dreamed of by Harlequins worldwide, whose atavistic hunger will find satisfaction in Venice, not only from the gastronomic point of view!

The scenic "machina" in Piazza San Marco, the Gran Teatro, will be enriched with triumphs of food and vegetable garlands; stage settings and re-enactments of the Arsenale will reinterpret the relationship of Venice with food: markets, large banquets, arrivals of exotic foods that from Venice spread throughout Europe.

Thanks to partnerships with museums and Venetian collections, the programme will propose thematic cultural itineraries for visitors, special openings, temporary exhibitions devoted to cycles of works that testify to the material culture related to food in Venice. Iconographic itineraries focused on food in the places of the Holy; theatrical performances and comedy; fables for children between fantasy and bountifulness.

In every imaginable artistic form, as is the custom in Venice – where the Carnival is a real cultural happening – the anthropological relationship with food will become the inspiration for entertainment: from the masks, which are so much tied with the success of the Carnival of Venice, that can shape a naturalistic and fantastic landscape inspired by fruit, a platter, a recipe where competitors of theMost beautiful Mask must draw inspiration from to parade in the Gran Teatro of San Marco.

And the Arsenale of Venice, the most beautiful water parterre in the world, will stage the sweetness of the palate of Venetian culture and celebration of the Carnival.

PREVIEW OF THE SCHEDULE: A RICH PROGRAMME OF PERFORMANCESTraditional food and good drinks will be present from the first occasion. Saturday, January 31, during the Venetian Festival, in the popular Cannaregio district, a great company of "nuveau cirque" will animate the start of Carnival with a theme-based show on the water and on the shore. The next day, the Venetian Festival withHistorical procession of decorated boats: the tradition of the Venetian rowing couples with the Carnival, proposing to the audience along the Rio in Cannaregio a hos of fine dishes from Venetian cuisine, from the “sarde in soar” (sardines in a sweet and sour sauce) to the “bigoi in salsa”(bigoli pasta with onions and anchovies) to the sweet and fluffy fritters “fritole”.

Saturday, February 7 will see the opening of the Gran Teatro of Piazza San Marco, the scenic stage by definition of the Carnival, designed with the collaboration of designers of the Gran Teatro La Fenice – where the most anticipated traditional appointments are enacted: the Festa delle Marie, historical parade of 12 girls in beautiful Renaissance costumes; Sunday, February 8, the Flight of the Angel from the Campanile di San Marco, interpreted by the 'Mary' winner of the Carnival of 2014.

Alongside these events are the evening shows at the Arsenale of Venice, with the performance of urban outdoor masking, the fireworks and fountains of water, alternating with musical performances and dance performances and "cirque nuveau" in the Tese.

During the week before Lent, from Thursday 12 to Tuesday 17 February, an explosion of events, parties, fashion shows: in piazza San Marco, on Sunday, February 15, with the final competition of the most beautiful Mask of the Carnival, the Flight of the Eagle from the Campanile di San Marco and the Flying donkey from the Tower of Piazza Ferretto in Mestre; to the Arsenale of Venice, the festival lasts well into the night with live music. Mardi Gras is the grand finale, when the Carnival of Venice 2015 will celebrate the glories of San Marco in the Flight of the Lion, majestic banner of San Marco, the winged lion on the red backdrop which made the Serenissima Republic immortal in the Mediterranean and in the world.

THE CARNIVAL OF CULTURE

The involvement of Cultural Institutions spread throughout the Venetian territory thanks to the Cultural programme: a programme that develops throughout the event by connecting the cultural realities of the city, from Local to State Museums, including independent private foundations in a calendar of events (concerts, conferences, exhibitions, theatrical and cinematographic reviews) declined on the theme of Carnival.

GIORGIO CAVAZZANO THE SIGNATURE IMAGE OF THE CARNIVAL OF VENICE 2015

For the second consecutive year, Giorgio Cavazzano, one of the most beloved and popular designers, has created the official image of the event which will be available in multiple forms of communication.

Regata Storica 2014

Sunday 7th September 2014

The Regata Storica is the main event in the annual "Voga alla Veneta" rowing calendar. This unique sport has been practised in the Venetian lagoon for thousands of years and today it is particularly well-known for the spectacular historical water pageant that precedes the race. Scores of typically 16th century-style boats with gondoliers in period costume carry the Doge, the Doge's wife and all the highest ranking Venetian officials up the Grand Canal in a brightly coloured parade. An unforgettable sight and a true reconstruction of the glorious past of one of most the powerful and influential Maritime Republics in the Mediterranean.Today there are four races divided in terms of age and type of craft. The best known and most exciting of these is the "Campioni su Gondolini" race, where a series of small, sporting gondolas fly down the Grand Canal to the finishing line at the famous "machina", the spectacular floating stage located in front of the Ca' Foscari palace.

The Festa del Redentore is a festival that is particularly popular with Venetians as it combines a religious theme with a spectacular celebration that attracts thousands of visitors. Every third Saturday of July night, the inimitable setting of St. Mark's Basin hosts a phantasmagorical firework display that lights up the spires, domes and bell towers of the city with a kaleidoscope of colours and reflections. At dusk, just as they have done for centuries, numerous small boats decked out with balloons, decorations and brightly coloured lanterns, begin to flock into St. Mark's Basin and the Giudecca Canal. The boats then moor alongside each other and all the participants enjoy a sumptuous dinner of traditional Venetian specialities while they wait for the firework display that begins at 11.30pm and lasts until well past midnight.

The Festa del Redentore is a tradition that dates back to 1577. It was first held to celebrate the city's deliverance from a terrible plague, and the construction of Palladio's "Redentore" (Redeemer) Church had been commissioned for the same reason. The Church, built on the Island of the Giudecca, can still be reached by pilgrims during the festival by means of an impressive 330-metre-long pontoon bridge. The "Redentore" celebrations include a solemn religious service and procession presided over by the patriarch of the city, and the weekend ends with a series of gondola races, organized as part of the "Voga alla Veneta" rowing season.

The title chosen by Rem Koolhaas for the 14th International Architecture Exhibition is:Fundamentals

Rem Koolhaas has stated: “Fundamentals will be a Biennale about architecture, not architects. After several Biennales dedicated to the celebration of the contemporary, Fundamentals will focus on histories – on the inevitable elements of all architecture used by any architect, anywhere, anytime (the door, the floor, the ceiling etc.) and on the evolution of national architectures in the last 100 years. In three complementary manifestations – taking place in the Central Pavilion, the Arsenale, and the National Pavilions – this retrospective will generate a fresh understanding of the richness of architecture’s fundamental repertoire, apparently so exhausted today.

In 1914, it made sense to talk about a “Chinese” architecture, a “Swiss” architecture, an “Indian” architecture. One hundred years later, under the influence of wars, diverse political regimes, different states of development, national and international architectural movements, individual talents, friendships, random personal trajectories and technological developments, architectures that were once specific and local have become interchangeable and global. National identity has seemingly been sacrificed to modernity.

Having the decisive advantage of starting work a year earlier than the Biennale’s typical schedule, we hope to use this extra time to introduce a degree of coordination and coherence among the National Pavilions. Ideally, we would want the represented countries to engage a single theme – Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014 – and to show, each in their own way, the process of the erasure of national characteristics in favour of the almost universal adoption of a single modern language in a single repertoire of typologies.

The First World War – the beginning of modern globalization – serves a starting point for the range of narratives. The transition to what seems like a universal architectural language is a more complex process than we typically recognize, involving significant encounters between cultures, technical inventions and imperceptible ways of remaining “national.” In a time of ubiquitous google research and the flattening of cultural memory, it is crucial for the future of architecture to resurrect and expose these narratives.

By telling the history of the last 100 years cumulatively, the exhibitions in the National Pavilions will generate a global overview of architecture’s evolution into a single, modern aesthetic, and at the same time uncover within globalization the survival of unique national features and mentalities that continue to exist and flourish even as international collaboration and exchange intensify…”